Vaccines & Infectious Diseases

“We’re improving the benefits of vaccination programs at every step—from identifying high-risk populations that benefit from vaccines, to clinical trials of experimental vaccines, to post-marketing studies of vaccine safety and effectiveness.”

Research overview

Vaccines save lives by protecting people against infectious diseases such as polio, measles, and viral hepatitis. But recently, particularly in the Northwest, people have delayed or refused vaccination because of safety fears, leading to local outbreaks of potentially deadly diseases like whooping cough. Kaiser Permanente Washington is working to protect communities by continually improving the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

clinical trials of promising vaccines and infectious disease treatments by the Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU) led by Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) Senior Investigator and Washington Permanente Medical Group physician Lisa A. Jackson, MD, MPH, and funded through 2023 by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases;

ongoing monitoring of influenza vaccination by the U.S. Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Network, led by Michael L. Jackson, PhD, MPH, KPWHRI Associate Investigator, and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); and

studies of immunization safety through the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) Project, supported by the CDC and connecting information in large databases maintained by eight American health plans including Kaiser Permanente Washington.

Successes over three decades of KPWHRI research on vaccine safety and effectiveness include:

a large study of flu vaccination in seniors that found that the vaccine might not protect them from pneumonia as well as hoped;

finding that nasal spray vaccine did not prevent flu effectively in young children in recent seasons;

clinical trials of flu vaccines, including ones against pandemic flu and bird flu, in adults;

the biggest retrospective study of pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine effectiveness in adults and the largest clinical trial on the safety of this vaccine;

the first clinical trial of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in older adults; and

“Kaiser Permanente Washington gives us nearly unlimited potential to address vaccine effectiveness and safety questions of national and international importance," says Lisa Jackson, MD, MPH, a KPWHRI senior investigator and Washington Permanente Medical Group physician. "We benefit from data for the Kaiser Permanente Washington population, the experience of our multidisciplinary immunization research group, and the encouraging atmosphere for research at Kaiser Permanente Washington.”